Do you have a goal that you’ve been trying to reach with your social media marketing efforts but aren’t sure what metrics to track? Or are you trying to “prove” the viability of your company’s social media marketing?

Well, you are in the right place….This post will explore three viable goals for social media marketing and how to track them.

Goal #1: Increase Exposure

To increase your brand’s exposure via social media, you must connect with other users – possibly by posting a question on your page and starting a conversion or posting content others would like to share. These types of connections, interactions and relationship building tactics matter.

It is important to keep a watchful eye on metrics such as, followers, shares, retweets and relationships, in order to track the exposure of your brand over time on social media.

Goal #2: Increased Engagement

Engaging with your customer via social media can be as simple as responding to your customer’s messages and comments. However, this is easier said than done. To be active and a part of any conversation that mentions your brand, you have to make sure your social media channels are being monitored closely.

To track this type of goal, it is suggested to create a spreadsheet for each channel you’re active on and record your followers, likes, comment and shares on a bi-weekly or monthly basis.

Goal #3: Drive Traffic

Regardless of whether your goal I to drive traffic to content on or off your website, it is VITAL to tag your links. Without these tags on the links to your content, it will be it extremely difficult to track the amount of traffic to your website from your social media marketing efforts, in Google Analytics (GA).

To see this data:

Login to GA

Navigate to “Social” under the “Acquisition” tab

Select “Network Referrals”

Select the correct date range

View Sessions for each Social Networks

Please keep in mind – regardless of the goal your company is attempting to attain, it is always a best practice to:

On a monthly basis, track all digital marketing efforts (especially, social media)

Keep track of the all the metrics that are important to you and your goals

Note and create more of the type of content/topics that led to your goal completions.

Pro Tip: Facebook’s Insights tab provide you with likes, shares, comments and clicks for all of your recent posts at once, which is great way to determine the type of content/topics that led you reaching your goals.